One Hippy Gypsy Artist's Creative Journey To Simplify Life.

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Author hipsyartist

One of my passions and also very much a part of my life is creating art. I work in several mediums, but I really enjoy watercolor. I love the thought process of going from light to dark, the drawing of the image, the depth of light you can create and just the beauty that one can create with watercolor. The vibrant colors and the brightness of the two flowers I painted below, bring a smile to me every time I look at them.

Painting in watercolors is an exercise in patience and letting go. My best watercolors are those in which I allow the watercolors to create, I guide them, but they flow over the page and do their own thing. Glazing is that layering process in watercolor, that allows the light to shine off the white paper through the glazes and give the brightness that is the very essence of watercolor.

I enjoy nature and as a full time RVer, we see so many birds, these beauties are one of my favorite subjects to paint in watercolor.

I also enjoy the challenge of painting folks traveling homes, these are commissioned pieces that I do in watercolor to capture that love we have for our traveling homes.

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Well there you go, my love of watercolors! What a blessing to have a life that enables me to pursue my passion and have such a wonderful time doing it. Thank you for following along with me on this journey. Short plug, if you are interested in a commission piece, drop me an email, sharen@gypsymusestudio.com.

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I just had a massage and some polarity work done with my most wonderful massage therapist Sandya. This lady is the real thing, just being in her presences, brings peace to my heart. She is a true healer, mind, body and soul. When you walk into her serene space, she has these wonderful words of wisdom, you can read them as you wait. When I walked in, this tidbit of wisdom was waiting for me.

“You can’t help getting older, but you don’t have to get old.”

It was definitely a message from the universe, the growing older thing has been on my mind lately, turning sixty in December, was different for me. It seems like what my Dad always said is coming to pass, it sure does seem like “the older you get, the faster time goes by”, wow sixty years into this journey called my life.

I love a little John Denver inspiration:

“I’ve been thinking lately about my life’s time, all the things I’ve done and how it’s been.”

Each day seems to bring a new enlightenment to me, who knows, I may be getting repeat enlightenments, because I forget them, it happens, or I’m not making them a part of my life; “lets run that by her one more time” says the Universe. What I do know, is that I am living each of my days with love, kindness, creativity and intention. I may be 60, but I feel that I am doing well, just as I should be, for this time in my life journey, .

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2568 miles later, Oklahoma, Kansas, Iowa, Missouri and Arkansas, can’t believe we actually drove to, stayed in and enjoyed some of the treasures, in all five of these states, in just nine days. This was quite an adventure and boy did we break in the new rig, both truck and fifth wheel. It really was a pretty smooth trip, We now have seven states on our sticker map, along with lots of memories.

Natural Falls State Park in Oklahoma – beautiful.

I still say this is Auntie Em’s house in Kansas. There were also lots of Robins that called our RV campsite home, in Kansas, good morning 5:43, the robins were singing on the bedroom slide.

Amish community in Iowa.

Johnson Shut Ins State Park, hands down my favorite spot in Missouri. We spent a lot of time with our feet in this turquoise water, it was so refreshing to the soul.

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I think I had a panic attack on Sunday night prior to us leaving on our Maiden voyage in our new Dodge Ram pulling the very big Solitude “There and Back Again II”. It’s the anticipation, followed by a mega amount of worry, all the crazy thoughts going through my head, things to do, remember, my inner self shouting “exactly how is this simplifying your life”. Let me just say preparing for a trip takes time and planning and for a worrier such as myself, there is never enough planning and the more time I have to think about it, the crazier I get. Breathe, Carter says to me, in the middle of the night, I do, I finally get to sleep, tomorrow morning our next adventure begins!

Lesson learned: my simplified life needs less worry on my part. Note to self, we did successfully overcome these perceived mountains:
Brought in, stored everything, disconnecting, set the route; really, there are no clues as to what roads are like until you travel them, let’s just say Hwy 75 going into Oklahoma is rough in a few spots and how is a two lane, no shoulders road, a hwy, just saying. Stopped for potty break for both humans and dogs, the diesel spewed all over Carter’s feet and leather flip flops, they are now in the trash, but we did get some good chicken tenders for lunch, treats and eats all around and it’s back on the road. The dogs, Bilbo Baggins, Gracies and Piper did great, they road like seasoned travelers.

All three collapsed on the sofa after the long trip.

Okay, so it took us six and one half hours to drive from Grapevine to Natural Falls State Park in Oklahoma, but we made it all in one piece, we have a beautiful spot, everything survived the trip, even with the shelves falling out of the pantry. Carter did a great job of fixing them, so they should work well for the rest of the trip. Thank you my sweet Carter you have been my rock in my mountain of worries.

Our beautiful spot in Natural Falls State Park.

We hiked down to the base of the falls it was beautiful.

We made it to the base and then the hike out, it was a nice trail for novice hikers such as ourselves.

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It seems like after selling our house and moving into an RV full time, things have been crazy busy for us. After we got back from New Mexico and the Davis Mountains in South Texas, towards the end of February, we settled in at the Vineyards campground in Grapevine. Our goal, to figure out the next part of this new adventure we have embarked on. Turn around twice and here we are at the end of May, staying at the Vineyards as one pair of a great team of camp hosts. Living and learning, both of which we are doing a lot of, one big change (as if selling our home to become traveling gypsies was not enough) we traded in our 32ft Grand Design Reflection fifth wheel for a 42ft Grand Design Solitude fifth wheel and traded our Ram 2500 in for a Ram 3500 dually. We needed that extra get up and go to pull our new home “There and Back Again II”! We loved the Reflection, but full time for us required more space, king size bed, two bathrooms and a washer and dryer. I have finally gotten my “Tiny House” and we now have a lot more space (420sq.ft.) to call home, we love it! Things have just fallen into place, it is part of our journey. We will stay here for a while, near my Mom and family, be in a place where I can still teach art classes here at the Vineyards, at Art in the Vine also here in Grapevine, along with teaching at The Painted Tree Marketplace in NRH. I am also working with a great team of IT specialists to revamp and set up my online workshops on my gypsymusestudio.com website. This is something I have been saying I would do for many years, it will take a couple of months, but I am super excited that this part of my journey has finally begun. More Adventures await, life is good!

View from the Vineyards campgrounds

Beginning Watercolor class at the Vineyards.

Visual Art Journaling class at The Painted Tree Vintage Market

Word To Live “My Story” On Line Workshop more info: sharen@gypsymusestudio.com

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We are on the road for about sixteen days, traveling and living in our Fifth Wheel Grand Design, we have christened her “There and Back Again”. We headed west out of Grapevine toward Carlsbad NM, with a overnite in Le Mesa, Texas. Up and out of there the next morning, heading for Carlsbad, stayed in a KOA campground outside of Carlsbad. It was a very nice campground, however the smell most mornings from the petroleum refineries in Artesia, not so good. We had a great time despite the smell. We went to Carlsbad Caverns , which were amazing, they are so magnificent and have weathered well despite the intrusion of humans and all that we have brought with us over the years as we entered these magnificent spaces. I was filled with awe at the beauty and wisdom that speak from these caverns beneath the earths surface.

From Carlsbad to Sitting Bull Falls , located in Lincoln National Forest in New Mexico. Such a treasure running through the canyons.

We took a day trip to Cloudcroft New Mexico, snow on the mountain, not as much as they would have liked, but still beautiful!

From New Mexico we headed back into Texas to the Davis Mountains. Wide open spaces and beautiful mountains, we are have such fun!

I have so many beautiful pictures, can’t wait to get some painting done. More adventures to come!

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Living life simply, what does it really mean? Down sizing, by going through all our “stuff” and getting rid of all that “stuff” , that we never really used and then selling our house. Making those big changes, have given us this wonderful opportunity to simplify our life. We bought a fifth wheel, a Grand Design Reflection 33 ft RV, it is our new home and we love it. Not saying it hasn’t taken some getting use to, but it’s an adventure. We are staying at Lake Grapevine. Enjoying being here on the lake, walking a little lighter with our overhead reduced by leaps and bounds. So our simpler life has begun. We have definitely taken the path less traveled. I don’t believe that everyone has to take that particular path to simplify their life, the path for each person trying to bring this state of being into their life will be different. For me it is less worry, I haven’t quit found a way to get rid of all my worries, and there are always worries popping up in my life, but I think living a simpler life means learning to worry less about the “stuff” that comes into my life. How to do that; well, I spend time each day acknowledging the feelings that come into my life, both good and not so good. I am thankful for the people, events and memories that fill me with those good feelings. I identify those negative feelings, where does that energy arise in my body, I acknowledge the feeling, bring love to it and then let it go. Now I’m not saying doing that one time, vanishes those negative feelings. Some days it works really well, other worries and unhappy feelings that bubble up, take more work, but I’m committed to putting in the time to clear that negative energy from my body, mind and spirit, it’s all part of living my life more simply.

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I believe it’s a God thing. When your life is suppose to change, things start falling into place, a door closes and another opens; direction from above, a little nudge to take the left path not the right , down that road that is your life. I believe good change has come to our life, we have sold our house, wow that’s crazy, our home for ten years, and I truly loved it, but it’s the right time and I know that home is not the house, but the people and love that you bring into it. It’s time to let go of things, embrace a simpler life, choose the path less traveled. We are going to be a little, OK a lot, more unconventional, for a while. What shall we do, where shall we go, lets see which door opens.

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I’m going to start by saying that being present in the moment, is no walk in the park. It’s hard to stay in the moment, to not let your mind wonder to what’s on your to do list for the day, what bills you have to pay, what will you be doing next week, next month, next year. To just be present in the moment, to pay attention to the here and now, this moment, to be joyful in it, to find that moment to breath, take it in. Most every morning, I rise and sort of shine, I do a few exercises, mixed with some yoga, if I get 30 minutes in, things are looking up. I then move on to my meditation, I may do 20 minutes with Deepak and Oprah or I may read a poem, or just sit quietly practicing my being present, not letting my mind wonder, just concentrating on my breathe. Sounds like I’m on the right path, right, not so sure. I think my “wandering mind” muscle is much stronger than my “just live in the moment” muscle. I have a really hard time not thinking about all the little stuff and big stuff that I allow to clutter my mind, however the fact that I acknowledge that stuff, then let it pass on by, does make me more aware and perhaps that’s the first step to being present each moment of my day, my week, my life. Becoming aware, now there is an “ah ha” in the moment for me!

“Time isn’t precious at all, because it is an illusion. What you perceive as precious is not time but the one point that is out of time: the Now. That is precious indeed. The more you are focused on time—past and future—the more you miss the Now, the most precious thing there is.” Eckhart Tolle

P.S. If you are enjoying my new blog, please click the Hipsy Follower button and follow my journey.

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Today was a beginning for me, the beginning of this journey to simplify my life. Well, it is really Carter, my wonderful husband and my life, that is being simplified. I probably have the most work to do, because I find I have become overly connected to my stuff, Carter is good with just being with me, ahhh, so sweet, but it makes it much easier for him to simplify, in terms of stuff. I found this quote in the book “Simple Truths” by Kent Nerburn; it hit home with me, spoke straight to my heart:

“Most of our possessions arrive in our lives almost by accident. Gradually like falling snow, they accumulate around us until they form the basis for our identity. We do not intend this to happen. Most things we acquire are meant to increase our happiness and sense of fulfillment. But their uniqueness is quickly subsumed into the ordinariness of daily affairs. We wake up one day and find ourselves surrounded by possessions that mean nothing to us. Our freedom is gone; our lightness of being is gone. In their place is a sense of responsibility and ownership. We have become curators of our own cluttered reality.”

So, I am on a journey to regain my freedom, my lightness of being. First thing, a good cleaning of my closet, really I have clothes in there from ten years ago, if not more. It was truly liberating to toss all those things I haven’t had on, in forever, shoes, clothes, purses, into the box to be given away or sold at a garage sale. I feel lighter already.